Standards Chartered Bangladesh announces BDT 135 million strategic action plan for Covid-19 response and recovery initiatives

Standard Chartered Bangladesh has announced a BDT 135 Million (USD 1.6 million) strategic action plan that supports healthcare and immediate assistance, regenerate livelihood and catalyse long-term growth.

The new measures announced for 2021 include: Immediate assistance through emergency food relief distribution for Covid-19 affected marginalised communities; Health support; Livelihood regeneration and Long-term growth catalysis through education support programme, said a Standard Chartered press release on Tuesday.

Naser Ezaz Bijoy, CEO, Standard Chartered Bangladesh, said, "While Bangladesh has been weathering the Covid-19 storm relatively well, with the risk of another wave imminent, we must remain vigilant. Helping our communities rise above Covid-19 remains as important as ever. This is why we are announcing another comprehensive, multi-pronged, Covid-19 response plan for the community, just as we did last year. The plan builds on our extensive initiatives from 2020, but is more diverse in scope, which we believe will be more impactful. While the response package is large, the need of the hour for the country is significantly more -- in sharing this we hope others will leverage this framework and some of the tested initiatives so that together we can achieve the large-scale impact that is a necessity at this juncture."

Bitopi Das Chowdhury, Head, Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing, Standard Chartered Bangladesh, said, "The pandemic has reshaped our lives permanently and will leave lasting impacts on all of us. While addressing the immediate needs of the COVID affected people will continue to be our priority, we are also focused on building for the longer term, co-investing in healthcare, education, entrepreneurship, and future skills development. Close partnerships between the private sector, developmental organizations and the government has never been more crucial – to make our economy and people more resilient"

Throughout the challenges faced during the pandemic, Standard Chartered has made it its mission to stand beside communities across Bangladesh. The Bank's commitment to supporting Bangladesh's continued journey of prosperity saw the bank secure 25 major international awards in 2020. The bank was also recognised as the international bank with the highest CSR spend in 2020 by Bangladesh Bank.